Reid denies ‘surrender’ to Brown
Home Secretary John Reid has rubbished claims that he will surrender to Gordon Brown in the Labour leadership battle.
Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain had said his party had accepted that the chancellor would become the new leader next year.
According to newspaper reports this weekend, friends of Mr Reid had insisted that he had not ruled out challenging Mr Brown when Tony Blair quits.
While Mr Reid refused to comment on a leadership challenge until there is a vacancy, he denied he was at war with the chancellor.
“The media seem to think there are only two states for politicians,” he told BBC One’s Sunday AM programme.
“One is for us to be at war, and the other one is for complete capitulation and surrender by one to the other.
“Actually there is a much more normal state, that’s people working together doing the job we are paid for and expected to do by the people of this country.”
Mr Reid added that he and other ministers were focusing on their duties concerning “people’s priorities” for the future instead of worrying about “our future or our self advance”.
He also revealed that the Queen’s speech next month would include a number of security proposals.
These include measures “to counter terrorism better, measures to tackle organised crime, measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, and measures to tackle the biggest new phenomena in the world in the last ten years which is mass migration on a massive scale”, he said.
